David Lamkins picked up his first guitar a long time ago. As best he can recall the year was 1967: the year of the Summer of Love. Four decades later David has conjured up an amalgam of folk, rock and jazz solo guitar music for the occasional intimate Portland audience.

On motivation and GAS

I'm just happy to be able to make music. I play with two bands and do
some recording, but perform infrequently. Almost all of our material
is original, and most of it is heavily improvisational. In short,
it's a blast to play! That's what really motivates me.

I'm also trying to learn some music theory so I can communicate with
"real" musicians. (I'm still more likely to call myself a guitarist
than a musician.)

Two things pretty much relieved my GAS. First was the "enough is
enough" factor. I have a lot more gear now than I can reasonably use.
I got to the point where I had to decide between music and gear, if
you know what I mean. For a while, I spent way more time comparing
amps than I did practicing.

I've been selling some of my less-used pieces for the past year or so.
The first to go was a big batch of cheaper stuff that I just dropped
at the local used-gear shop and had them cut me a check. I've been
selling the more desirable pieces on my own. In fact, I went home
from a recent guitar geekfest with one less amp.

My other anti-GAS factor is the fact that I'm really happy with my two
main rigs. One of them is my Vibro-King and ES-346. This rig
nails the sounds I've had in my head ever since I started learning to
play. My second rig is built around a Boogie Mark IV and a couple of
time-based effects. This is more complicated and more difficult to dial
in, but the added complexity is needed for more modern music where the
"color" of my guitar sound is as important as the notes.